President Donald Trump characterized Anthropic as ‘woke’ and ‘radical-left,’ accusing it of attempting to dictate the US military policy
The Department of Defense ended its agreement with Anthropic yesterday and embraced rival OpenAI as its new partner.
Anthropic had until 5:01 p.m. ET to drop limits on using its AI, Claude, for mass surveillance or autonomous weapons, or risk losing a $200 million defense contract.
The company was designated a supply chain risk, a label that mandates all federal agencies to cease using Anthropic’s AI models. Such a label is usually given to companies linked to foreign adversaries.
Trump also characterized Anthropic as “woke” and “radical-left,” accusing it of attempting to dictate military policy.
Conflict had been simmering for some time, but it peaked this week when Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei met with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and refused to grant the Pentagon unrestricted use of its models.
Meanwhile, rival OpenAI announced Friday that it has secured a $200 million deal to deploy its models in classified military settings.
CEO Sam Altman, who has been more vocally supportive of Trump’s tech agenda, claimed the agreement includes the same ethical prohibitions Anthropic sought. While it is unclear how that is possible, Pentagon officials praised OpenAI as a “reliable and steady partner.”
Industry experts warn that the supply-chain risk label could have a chilling effect, potentially forcing partners like Google and Amazon to divest from Anthropic to maintain their own government contracts.
Anthropic said it will challenge the government’s decision in court.